Poker should be fun

After re-reading my last blog post, it's pretty obvious to me that was one of my classic steam/vent blog posts.

Although it's obvious and I knew it before, I'm way way way way way too short term results orientated. It doesn't really matter that my play isn't adversely affected much at all due to placing too big of an emphasis my short term results... it's just making a job that should actually be nearly stress free quite stressful.

I don't have any projects due at a certain deadline, I don't have to meet a sales quota, I don't have to write 3 TPS reports by Friday, etc. Life as a pro poker player is great as far as flexibility goes and I truly believe that if approached correctly it can be a nearly stress-free job as long as you have an overly sufficient bankroll and reserve funds to safely pay bills during rough stretches.

I got into playing poker for a living not only because it was a great way for me to make money but also because I love the game. When going through a tough run, it can certainly take the fun out of it if you get too worried about the results. I'm not going to make that mistake again. I'm going to try a few things that I think will help me out that I've done in the past, to ensure that I'm less short-term results orientated.

I should have this down by now obviously since I've played over a million cash game hands, but I think everyone has their breaking point. Before I'd really bitch about just one or two sessions but here it's taken me nearly a month and a half of run-bad to really get worked up about it. So my tolerance level for getting frustrated over a bad run definitely seems to be getting better, but I want to be completely separated from my short-term results emotionally and mentally as long as I'm playing well.

Even though I had a rough day today as well and didn't win nearly as much as I should have, I finished in the green. But most importantly, I laughed while playing for the first time in a week or so.

I flatted a huge donk's open raise with KQs in position, flopped top pair on KXX with a flushdraw out and the donk c-bet shipped $400 into a $30 pot. I snapcalled and he had K4o for top pair no kicker. I held up and just laughed. The massive display of retardedness by the donk put a smile on my face and made my day.